In offering for sale devices that require complex configuration, one of the major deterrents of clients from purchasing the devices is the costs of configuration. This is especially important when a new device is offered as an upgrade for an existing device, in which case the client may well forego the upgrade to avoid the headache involved in configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,416 to Owens et al., titled: “Automated Software Installation and Operating Environment Configuration for a Computer System based on Classification Rules”, describes methods for simplifying configuration of computer systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,613 to Chan et al., titled: “ANDF Installer Using the HPCODE-PLUS Compiler Intermediate Language”, describes a method of configuring computers with software, in which the software is created in a neutral intermediate language and from this language is translated to the specific languages of the computers receiving the software.
US patent publication 2006/0182037 to Chen et al. describes a method of configuring routing elements, in which the configuration is performed by a human user in a high level language and is automatically converted to specific formats required by various routing network elements.
These patents describe methods for simplifying the initial installation, but still require reinstallation in the case of system upgrade.
Various suggestions have been made regarding transferring high level programming commands from one programming language and/or environment to another.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,212 to Atkins et al., titled “Method and System for Automated Migration of user settings to a Replacement Computer System”, describes a method of transferring user system settings from an old computer to a new computer, through a network connection or on a diskette. The method performs a plurality of predetermined steps of collecting information from the old computer, such as mapped drivers, TCP/IP settings and DNS settings and then installs these settings on the new computer. The method of this patent requires a program which runs on both the old and new system and is specifically designed for using on the old and new systems. Therefore, it is generally useful only for general purpose computers using the same or similar operating systems.
US patent publication 2005/0256892 to Harken describes a method of transferring extract, transform and load (ETL) jobs between different platforms, passing through an intermediate language. The commands of the source ETL job are translated into an intermediate ETL language and the commands from the intermediate language are translated into a destination ETL job.
US patent publication 2007/0192823 to Anderson et al., titled “Policy Administration and Provisioning”, describes a method of setting policies of communication devices, in which the policies are defined in an intermediate language and are dynamically converted to a plurality of device policy definition formats supported by the devices. Changes performed in the other policy definition formats are converted back to the intermediate format. In relation to FIG. 3, Anderson suggests identifying policies of a first device and applying the identified policies to a second device. The identification may be performed through a dynamic interface receiving a publication of the set of policies, use of a mining service or by accessing a separate data store having a copy of the set of policies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,397 to Ogawa, U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,130 to SaulPaugh et al., and US patent publication 2006/0136424 to Nuggehalli et al. describe methods of transferring various types of data between devices using different data formats.